


The Ghost with the Snake Ring

by SammySnow15



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Head Injury, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Past Character Death, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-18 04:20:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20632982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SammySnow15/pseuds/SammySnow15
Summary: It all started out with a simple game of Truth or Dare and now Virgil finds himself in an abandoned house on a Friday night. At least this night can't get any worse, right?





	1. A game of truth or dare

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first chapter of my sanders sides ghost AU. This is one of my first stories so I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors. I hope that you enjoy!

Thinking back on it now, Virgil began to wonder how he managed to end up in this situation. Despite his brain screaming at him that Truth or Dare was a terrible idea, he still agreed to play. And that is how he ended up in an abandoned house at midnight on a friday night. Could this night get any worse? The answer of course was yes. 

Virgil had looked back on today's activities that lead up to this moment and unfortunately the only one at fault for him being in this situation was himself. Although he was also going to blame Roman, because if Roman hadn’t dared him to go into the abandoned house then he wouldn’t have felt the need to defend his reputation. So in Virgil’s mind, this was all Romans fault. 

The night had started out just fine, Roman had invited Patton and Virgil over to his house for a sleepover since his parents were out of town for the weekend with Logan's parents. Roman and Logan were cousins so Logan was already staying at Roman’s for the weekend. They had ordered pizza and watched some Disney movies for a couple of hours before Patton suggested that they play Truth or Dare. Which of course was a terrible idea but Virgil just couldn’t say no to Patton. So that’s how he got roped into playing Truth or Dare. But the real kicker wasn’t just getting roped into Truth or Dare, no, it was when Roman decided that he had to dare Virgil to go into the abandoned house across town. Of course, the others had deemed that dare as too extreme and all decided that Virgil didn’t have to do the dare. It was too dangerous they had explained. But he knew they were just saying that so that he didn’t feel bad about not wanting to do the dare.  
“He would be too scared” or “we don’t want to freak Virgil out.” That’s what they had been thinking, Virgil just knew it. They were taking pity on him. So of course he said that he was going to do the dare. He knew if he didn’t then Roman would mock him about it later at some point. He refused to back down and made them all come with him to the abandoned house. He would show them that he wasn’t scared of some stupid house. Just because it was nearing midnight and no one had lived in that house for over 20 years didn’t mean that he was too scared to walk into it. 

So they all piled into Logan’s car and drove out to the abandoned house all the way across town around midnight. Once there, Virgil was gearing himself up and trying not to think too hard about it or else he would start panicking. Patton handed him a flashlight and Logan insisted that Virgil keep his phone on him incase something happened. They asked him one last time if he really wanted to do this, and he almost backed out. But his dark and scary reputation needed to be upheld. And without another word, he started heading to the front door of the house. 

Bringing himself back into the present, Virgil realized that 5 minutes had already passed. Only 25 more minutes before he could leave this place. Not that the house was really that bad. Sure, the floorboards creaked and looked like they may break under the smallest amount of weight and the wall paper had mostly peeled off, with a few remnants remaining. Most of the windows had been broken and the little amount of furniture that was still here was ragged and filled with holes. But the night was calm and there didn’t appear to be any large animals, or people, staying in the house. Virgil was able to actually take some deep breaths and relax. This wasn’t nearly as bad as he thought it would be, it definitely helped that the flashlight Patton gave him was very bright. And with the room being on the smaller side he was able to illuminate almost everything. 

He decided to carefully make his way towards the back of the house, which would be the kitchen. Or at least what Virgil assumed used to be the kitchen. It was hard to tell since it was practically emptied of everything. There was some counters and a few cabinets left but they were a sad sight. The cabinets no longer had doors on them and the counters were eaten away by either termites or the elements. With not much to look at, Virgil turned around and made his way back to the living room. He noticed a set of stairs to his left but figured with the condition that the house was in, the stairs wouldn’t be able to hold his weight. 

He decided to just hang around in the living room until his time was up and he could head back to Roman’s house, idly wondering what they were going to do for the rest of the night. As he walked around the living room, inspecting all the spiders that had made their cobwebs all around the room, Virgil noticed a slight gleam of something shiny on the floor. With his curiosity piqued, he hesitantly knelt down to get a closer look. What greeted him was a ring embedded in between the floorboards, but not your typical ring. Instead of having a normal ring band, which was a simple band of metal smoothed out to place a gemstone, this ring had three snakes braided together to form the ring band. And instead of having a center spot to place a gemstone, this ring had small yellow gemstones implanted into where the snakes eyes would be. He slowly and carefully pulled the ring out from between the floorboards, afraid that he might break it. Despite the fact that the ring had probably been sitting out here at least a couple years, it was in a surprisingly nice condition. 

“Well, this is something I wasn’t expecting. I wonder how you got in here?” Virgil questioned to himself out loud, fully knowing that he wouldn’t be getting an answer. As he crouched there, flipping and rotating the ring around in his hand, an idea popped into his head. The ring had obviously been here for a while, so that probably meant that whoever it belonged to had completely forgotten about it. That meant that he could easily just take the ring and no one would know or care. The ring was certainly unique and although he was more of a spider person than a snake person, he wasn’t going to turn down this incredible ring. It still fit his dark and scary aesthetic. And he could think of it as a type of souvenir, a way of saying “hey, I went into the abandoned house and survived!” 

With his mind made up Virgil finally stood back up and slipped the ring onto his left hand middle finger. As he stood there admiring the ring, he suddenly felt a violent chill run down his back. The decent early fall weather seemed to have dropped 20 degrees out of the blue, and Virgil couldn’t seem to stop shivering. He felt the paranoid feeling like he was being watched, even though he knew the house had to be empty. There were only two doors into the house, the front door and the back door that was in the kitchen. Both of which he could see, and no one had come in through the doors. Even if someone did manage to sneak in when his back was turned, he would have heard the sound of the creaky floor. So why did he feel like there was someone staring at him? Virgil could feel his heart rate rapidly increasing and his breathing was becoming quicker. 

“You need to calm down. Just relax and remember what Logan taught you.” He attempted to say to himself. He began his breathing technique and for a minute it seemed to be working. Except for at that moment, an inaudible whisper started to echo through the house. Virgil couldn’t pick up anything that was being said but it didn’t matter as he decided “fuck this” and turned around, planning on booking it to the front door as it was the closest one to him.  
Virgil was a pretty fast runner and figured that if someone or something was in the house that he would be able to outrun them to the door. At least if he was outside he couldn’t be trapped in a corner and the others were waiting for him. Four against one was definitely a better odd than one against one. That was Virgil’s line of thought as he turned towards the door. 

And those thoughts went straight down the drain so quickly it was like he didn’t even have them, because as he turned towards the door he came face to face with someone else.  
The person was about his height and staring straight at him. Their eyes glowed a faint yellow color. But what was even more noticeable was the intense scarring over the left side of their face. And as Virgil looked more closely at their face, he noticed that they were extremely pale, almost translucent. They seemed to faintly glow themselves. The person stared at Virgil, with a look across their face like indifference, or possibly vague distaste. They took a step towards Virgil, and in return Virgil took two steps back. That caught their attention, they froze for a second before taking another step towards him and reaching their hand out in his direction, watching him closely. His breath caught in his throat as he started back pedaling away from their reach, just trying to get away, to put more space between them. 

In his rush to get away from whoever this was, Virgil wasn’t watching where he was walking. Thus he didn’t see when his foot caught on the edge of uneven flooring and suddenly gravity was carrying him backwards. He flailed around, trying to grab something or regain his balance but to no avail. He fell back and as his head hit the ground, his sight went black.


	2. The aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After all the "excitement" with the abandoned house, the gang decides that they've had enough for the night and head home. Virgil is trying to figure out if what he saw was real or not.

The first thing Virgil noticed upon regaining consciousness was the throbbing pain on the back of his head, the second was that something was standing above him. He started lashing out his hands to try and hit whatever was above him. It wasn’t until he heard the thing start shouting that he stopped. As his vision adjusted to the dim lighting he saw that Patton, Roman, and Logan were surrounding him. 

“Oh thank god, you’re alright!” Patton scooped him up into a big bear hug and held him tight. Logan was prying him off of Virgil when Roman crouched down to help Virgil up.

“Virgil! Are you ok? What happened? Did something attack you?!” He bombarded him with questions that were definitely not helping the pain in his head. As Virgil’s mind was still reeling, his breaths were becoming ragged.

“Roman, stand back for a second. You’re overwhelming him; we can ask questions later.” Logan gently pulled Roman away and stepped in towards Virgil. “Are you able to walk yourself over to the car? Or would you prefer assistance?” 

“I- I think I can walk.” Logan nodded his head in understanding and the four of them slowly made their way outside. Once they were all back in the car and driving back to Roman’s, Virgil was given some time to try and remember what had happened. He had been in the abandoned house, he was wandering around, and then he found that ring. And then… that person, or a ghost maybe, showed up! But that couldn’t have actually happened, right? Ghost didn’t exist.  
Virgil discreetly glanced down at his hand and saw that he still had the ring on his finger. So that part was real. It must have just been his anxiety-ridden imagination that caused him to “see” the ghost.

Before he could think more about it, they had finally pulled into the driveway. Patton helped him out of the car and quickly ushered him inside where he was seated on the couch. Logan had gone into the bathroom and returned with a first-aid kit.

“Alright Virgil, I’m going to take a look at your head and then do some basic tests to make sure you didn’t sustain a concussion. Is that satisfactory to you?” He just nodded, and with that Logan began. Gently searching the back of his head for the injury, carefully cleaning the wound and then wrapping it up with some bandages. After that, Logan sat in front of him and had him do some tests where he followed Logans finger without moving his head, and other things like that. Once they were done Logan determined that besides the large bump on the back of his head, Virgil was physically alright. And with that, Patton and Roman zoomed in to surround Virgil.

“What happened in there Kiddo? Patton asked with eyes shining with worry and slight curiosity.

“Ya, what caused you to fall to the floor? Was there a wild animal in the house?” 

“I too have an increased amount of curiosity as to what happened inside the building.” Logan added in along Romans questions.

Virgil’s brain froze for a second because what was he going to tell them, that he thought he had seen a ghost. They would all think he was crazy, there’s no way they would believe him. In fact, if he did tell them that they would probably think he had injured his brain and would definitely take him to the hospital. That was the last thing he needed to happen tonight. 

“I- um, I heard a really loud sound from the second floor and it startled me so much that I accidently tripped on the floor board and hit my head on the ground…” he muttered while avoiding eye contact. Saying that something startled him so much that he tripped and hurt himself was embarrassing but it was between either being embarrassed or being called crazy. He knew which one he would prefer. “Really guys, that’s all it was.”

When he finally glanced up after a few seconds of no replies, he could see the guilt all over their faces. Patton’s eyes were looking damp with tears, Logan was looking away, while Romans head hung in shame. And Virgil felt terrible, after all, he was the one who had decided to follow through with the dare. They wouldn’t have forced him to do it if he had told them he was uncomfortable. 

“Guys, it’s not your faul-” 

“Virgil” Roman cut in softly. “I know you’re trying to make us feel less guilty by taking the blame but it was our fault. Well, mine really.” He sighed. “I shouldn’t have given you such a dangerous dare.” Virgil opened his mouth to object but Roman continued. “Sure, you’re ok now and not seriously injured. But what if you had been? It was stupid of me to dare you to do that and it was stupid that we didn’t stop you from doing it.” Patton and Logan solemnly nodded in agreement. Virgil wasn’t sure how to respond. They sat in silence before it was broken by Logan.

“We’ve all had a long night, I suggest we get some sleep and continue this discussion in the morning. Is that adequate with everyone?” When no one voiced a disagreement he gave a curt nod and turned to Roman. “Can you assist me with acquiring the air mattress and some blankets?” 

“Of course.” And the two of them made their way upstairs. Leaving Virgil and Patton in the living room. Patton settled himself next to Virgil on the couch and slowly wrapped his arms around him, giving Virgil time to pull away if he wanted. When he made no sign of that, Patton gently pulled him close and they sat on the couch in comforting silence. 

When Roman and Logan came back downstairs they found Virgil and Patton cuddled together with Patton gently running his hand through Virgil’s hair, careful to avoid the injury on his head. Logan quickly set up the air mattress while Roman was arranging the blankets and pillows. Virgil took the reclining chair for the night, not because he didn’t want more cuddles but he tends to overheat in his sleep and another person next to him would just make it worse. Logan and Patton agreed to share the air mattress while Roman would take the couch. They settled in quickly and before long they were all softly snoring. 

Except Virgil. He had been relaxed earlier when he was cuddling with Patton but now for some reason his body felt like it was on high alert. Something about the room was foreboding. His mind was going a mile a minute. The room was too dark, too many shadows. Was there something behind him or was it just the wind blowing the branches against the window? He couldn’t calm down his thoughts. 

He couldn’t stand it anymore, he had to move. He decided that getting a glass of water might help, so he softly tip-toed over to the kitchen being sure as to not wake the others. Turning the lights on he quickly got himself some water and downed the glass in about 30 seconds. After taking a few deep breaths he made his way back over to the chair, actually feeling a little better. Laying back down and pulling the blanket over himself, he shut his eyes and began to feel himself sink into sleep.

Which lasted about 3 seconds before he got that paranoid feeling again, like someone was standing over him. The feeling happened so quickly that he jolted up and began frantically whipping his head around, trying to see who or what was watching him. 

“Looking for me?” A voice hauntingly whispered in his left ear causing Virgil to leap out of the chair. Snapping around so quickly he was surprised he didn’t get whiplash, he saw a person nonchalantly floating on their side, as if lying on a couch, in the air. The yellow glowing eyes, the intense scarring down the left side of their face. It was the same person from the abandoned house. 

Virgil's mind froze, causing him to just stand there staring at this person, or ghost he guesses. But ghost can’t be real, there’s just no way. He had to be going crazy, maybe he had actually damaged his brain in the fall. No, that couldn’t be right because he saw this person before he fell, so before the head injury. While he was stuck in thought, the ghost seemed to have lost their patience.

“Speechless, huh? I’m flattered, I truly am, but I’ve been stared at enough my whole life so how bout we just cut to the chit chat, alright?” Their sarcastic and condescending tone washed over Virgil and seem to snap him out of his stupor. 

“Who the fuck are you and why are you following me around?!” Virgil couldn’t help but shout out at this ghost. “Are you haunting me? If so then I don’t know why because I didn’t do anything to you, so just leave me the fuck alone!” He was panting after that last sentence and glaring intensely at the ghost. But the ghost didn’t seem overly impressed, simply raising an eyebrow and giving a slight scoff.

“Really… you didn’t do anything at all? So I guess stealing someone's valuables is nothing now-a-days?” They drawled out sarcastically as they shot a glance at Virgil’s left hand.  
Virgil quickly looked down at his hands in confusion before he felt his stomach drop. Somehow he had completely forgotten about the braided snake ring that sat on the middle finger of his left hand. How had he forgotten about that!? He grabbed the ring and tried yanking it off but it refused to budge, almost as if it had been glued on to his finger. He continued to keep yanking the ring until is finger was red and sore. Virgil nervously looked up at the ghost who was staring down at him.

“I- I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to take your ring, I figured that no one would even notice if it like… wasn’t there.” He attempted to explain. But the ghost didn’t seem to like that explanation, because they had now righted themselves in the air and their eyes were beginning to flash yellow as they advanced on Virgil.

“You didn’t mean to take my ring? You honestly expect me to believe that?” They hissed at him. “You think I’m dumb enough to believe that it just magically appeared on your finger?!” Their face was now inches away from Virgils and the temperature had dropped so low that Virgil could see his breath puffing in the air as he was on the verge of hyperventilating. Their hand suddenly snapped out and snatched his wrist, yanking him closer so that they were now face to face. Their hand sent down a cold sensation so intense that Virgil thought his arm had gone numb from it. 

“P-please…” Virgil gasped out. Please what, Virgil wasn’t sure. Please stop? Please leave me alone? Please don’t hurt me? Any of those could have worked but Virgil wasn’t sure which one would actually convince this ghost to stop. 

And then just like that the ghost released his wrist and pulled their hand back so quickly it was as if they had been burned. Virgil slumped down to his knees and took a few ragged breaths. When he looked up at the ghost they had a look of shock and disbelief for one brief moment before it switched to indifference. They slowly began drifting away before fading away completely. Virgil tried to get up off his knees but then his sight went black.

He woke with a strangled gasp. When his vision came into focus he was lying on the reclining chair and his blanket had been kicked off onto the ground. The others were still fast asleep and everything was calm in the early morning. Glancing around the room he didn’t see anything out of place. He let out a shaky breath and he tried to calm his racing heartbeat. 

“It was just a dream Virgil. Just a bad dream.” He tried to tell himself. He lifted his left hand up and stared at the ring. And as his eyes traveled down a little further to his wrist he saw faint white marks that looked similar to the shape of a handprint. In the exact same spot that the ghost had grabbed him.

“Just a dream…” He whispered softly while gently tracing the mark, as if trying to convince himself.


	3. Unexpected breakdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after the dream, Virgil hopes to have everything go back to normal and forget about the whole ghost thing. And he almost succeeded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay. College is being a bitch at the moment and I've been too busy to write. Hopefully that will change soon.

After his nightmare, Virgil wouldn’t go back to sleep. He passed the time by scrolling on tumblr and listening to music, doing anything he could to push the dream to the back of his mind. At least it was already early morning so it only took another hour or two before the others began to wake up. Logan woke up first with Patton following close behind. When they glanced around to see who else was awake Virgil shot them a finger salute when they saw that he was also awake.

“How about we make breakfast while we wait for Roman to wake up?” Virgil heard Logan whisper to him and Patton. The three of them made their way over to the kitchen without disturbing Roman. 

Once they were in the kitchen they decided that pancakes sounded nice. So they gathered up the ingredients needed. Patton began mixing the ingredients while Virgil got the skillet heated. Logan stepped out of the kitchen to go take a shower after they had gotten breakfast started. Leaving Virgil and Patton together. 

“Did you sleep well last night?” Patton asked while he began cooking the chocolate chip pancakes that were for Roman. “I noticed that you were awake before me.”

“Meh, I slept decently I guess. Probably got at least 5 hours.” He replied as he walked over to the fridge to get blueberries for his pancakes, Crofters for Logan’s, and stopping at the cabinet to grab cinnamon for Patton’s. As he brought the ingredients over to Patton he noticed that he was looking at him with worry. Patton looked like he was about to say something but before he could voice his concern, Roman walked into the kitchen with a loud yawn.

“Good morning Padre, good morning Hot Topic.” He greeted, voice still thick with sleep. Roman then noticed the chocolate chip pancakes. “Are those for me?” When Patton excitingly nodded, a large grin spread across Roman’s face. “You are far too kind to me Patton.” He gave Patton a quick hug before grabbing the plate and making his way towards the table. Virgil followed with his plate of pancakes. As they were starting to dig in, Logan came back into the kitchen. Patton handed him his plate of plain pancakes and the jar of crofters. 

“Many thanks Patton.” Logan said with a soft smile. Patton had just finished up making his cinnamon pancakes and turned off the stove. He sat down next to Logan at the table and they all quietly enjoyed breakfast. When they finished up, Roman and Logan took care of the dishes.

After breakfast, Virgil decided that it was about time to head home. He loved his friends but there was only so much he could take before he felt drained. Virgil was glad that they all understood that and wouldn’t try to force him to stay. He had said his goodbyes and gave hugs. He was planning on walking home but Patton offered him a ride, so he accepted.

The drive to his place wasn’t too far, probably about a 5 minute drive from Romans. The radio played in the background while they drove in comfortable silence. It wasn’t until they pulled into Virgil’s driveway that Patton broke the silence.

“Are you feeling alright?” The question caught Virgil by surprise. He hadn’t told any of them about his nightmare and he thought he managed to hide his nervousness pretty well. 

“Ya, Pat. I’m alright.” He answered, but the look on Patton’s face told him that he wasn’t buying it. 

“I understand if you don’t want to talk about it. Just wanted you to know that you can talk to us about anything. I don’t want you thinking that you’re going to be a burden to us or that we’ll make fun of you.” Patton said, unusually serious. Virgil just nodded since he wasn’t sure how to respond. Patton then shifted back to his normal bubbly self. “Alright, have a good weekend! I’ll see you in school.” Patton replied as he gave him a hug. Virgil climbed out of the car and as he was walking to the front door, he heard a short little honk and turned around. Patton was waving goodbye out the car window as he drove off, and then Virgil was alone. 

He unlocked the door and strode inside. His parents did a lot of traveling for work, so unsurprisingly they weren’t home this weekend. Virgil didn’t mind, he usually liked having the house to himself. Except he was less than excited being in the house by himself at this moment. Too much had gone on and he was too high strung to properly relax. He decided that the best thing to do was to just stay in his room and listen to music or watch videos. And so that’s what he did for most of the day. It didn’t stop him from looking at the white mark on his wrist every now and then. 

As it got into the evening Virgil decided that he should probably eat something for dinner since he hadn’t eaten much for lunch. Making his way down the hall to the kitchen with his music still playing from his headphones. He grabbed an open bag of pizza rolls and poured out about 20 onto a baking tray. There was no way he was going to microwave them, everyone knew that pizza rolls tasted the best when they were cooked in the oven. The only downside was that they took longer, but it was worth it to Virgil. He set the oven to preheat and turned off his music so he could hear when the oven was ready. To pass the time while he was waiting, he decided to scroll on tumblr.

Virgil was lazily scrolling through his dashboard and his focus was starting to zone out, until he heard a short polite cough. The kind of cough you would do you gain someone's attention. Except for the point that Virgil was home alone. He quickly jerked his head up and just across the kitchen he noticed an unfortunately familiar face. The same ghost he saw in his nightmare and the abandoned house, and they were just casually standing in his kitchen. 

“Hello again, Virgil.” Their voice sent a chill down his spine.

“How the fuck do you know my name!?” He half shouted at the ghost. This couldn’t be another dream, could it? They seemed too real. 

“Well, I happened to overhear it when you were talking to your friends. A very lively bunch, aren’t they?” They replied back smoothly. And Virgil felt like he just had a bucket of ice water dumped on him. He had been convincing himself the last couple of days that this had all been a dream or an anxiety-induced hallucination, but it didn’t look like he could keep telling himself that now. Virgil took a step back and was about to sprint out of his house, but then the ghost spoke again. 

“Look, I know we didn’t have the greatest of meetings and I apologize for scaring you like that but I need to talk to you, so if you could just relax and listen for like two minutes that would be greatly appreciated.” 

“How do I know you won’t try to attack me? I still have marks on my wrist from yesterday!” He shot back at them. Virgil felt like he should probably be more scared, but for some reason he was just angry. Couldn’t this ghost just leave him alone? No! They followed him to his own house. He could see the frustration on the ghost’s face and they released a loud sigh.

“What can I do to make you believe me when I say that I’m not going to hurt you?” They looked at him, waiting for a response. But Virgil's mind was drawing a blank. Was there anyway that he could trust this ghost? What if they were just lying to him? Could he take that risk? He contemplated these thoughts before he made his choice.

“I’ll trust you for now, as long as you stay over there and don’t come any closer to me. Oh, and umm, could I maybe get your name?” The ghost looked shocked for a millisecond before they hid it.

“You can call me Deceit. And that’s fine, I’ll stay right over here. I just need to talk to you.” 

“Alright… Deceit. I’m listening I guess.” Their name was strange but at least now he had something to call them instead of just, the ghost. But he still wouldn’t let his guard down. 

“Good, so as you could probably guess, that ring that you have is mine. And I need it back.” Deceit explained slowly, as if telling a young child something complicated. And of course this all came back to the stupid ring. Sure, it looked cool but it wasn’t worth all of the trouble that it had caused. 

“So, you’re telling me that if I give you your ring back, you’ll finally leave me alone.” Virgil asked hesitantly. This was too easy, all the ghost shows he had watched made it seem like getting rid of a ghost was difficult. 

“Absolutely.” Deceit answered quickly, while glancing at the ring. 

Virgil doesn’t even bother to respond. He gladly reaches over to take the ring off as quickly as he could. But he was swiftly reminded of the problem that occurred earlier. The ring still wouldn’t come off his finger, it wouldn’t even budge in the slightest. And that feeling of dread rises up. 

“I.. I can’t get it off…” Virgil hesitantly whispers. 

“What?” 

“I can’t get it off! OK? It’s stuck to my goddamn finger and it won’t come off!” He shouted out in frustration. Of course this would be happening to him, a simple solution to his problem and he couldn’t even do that. And then the room went cold. Goosebumps covered his body and he could see his breath in the air. 

And then he looked over at Deceit. Their eyes were flickering yellow, just like that night in his dream. Virgil took a step back, he should have known this would happen. He shouldn’t have trusted Deceit. Virgil was going to run but then he looked closer at Deceit, and they didn’t look angry. They actually looked… devastated. It was written so strongly on their face that Virgil could almost feel their pain. 

“No… that can’t.. I- I need the ring. I need it!” Their hands shot up into their hair and they folded in on themselves, causing them to collapse onto their knees. And then chaos happened.

The lights in the kitchen began flickering, the drawers and cabinets were slamming open and close sporadically, the chairs at the table were lifted into the air. And Virgil was frozen in fear. What the hell was he supposed to do? It’s not everyday that you dealt with a ghost having some sort of panic attack, or at least that’s what it looked it. He felt like he should do something to help, but what? He finally decided. He stumbles over to Deceit, who is crouched down and yanking on their own hair. 

“Deceit? Deceit, I need you to breathe with me, ok? Breathe in for four seconds, hold for seven, and let out for eight, alright? Just follow my lead.” And Virgil began to do overexaggerated breaths, hoping that Deceit would copy him. For a second he’s worried that Deceit didn’t even notice him as their breathing continued to be ragged and sporadic, but then slowly they seem to be attempting to follow the breathing pattern. After about thirty seconds the lights slowly stop flickering, the drawers and cabinets stop slamming, and the chairs finally settle back down onto the floor. Deceit’s hands slowly fall from their hair and into their lap. 

They sit together in silence after everything finally calms down. Deceit is staring at the ground and refusing to make eye contact with Virgil. Virgil realizes how close they were to the ghost but he doesn’t pull away. 

“I can’t leave you alone now.” Virgil could barely hear them, despite sitting next to them.

“What do you mean?” 

“I’m bound to the ring. Wherever it goes, I’m forced to follow. I figured that if I could get a hold of it myself then I could go anywhere I wanted.” The explanation came in a hushed voice. “But I couldn’t even pull it out from between the floorboards.” They humorlessly laughed at themselves. “I sat in that house for five years, staring at the ring, trying to figure out how I was going to get it out. I’ve seen dozens of teens come through the house, but you were the only one to notice the ring. And now you’re stuck with me…” 

Virgil was left dumbfounded, how was he supposed to respond to that? He felt bad for Deceit, he really did. He couldn’t imagine being trapped in that house for five years. They were desperate, and desperate people did things they weren’t proud of. 

“Hey… we’ll figure this out, ok? I’ll find out how to get this ring off and I’ll give it to you. Then you’ll be free, right?” He attempted to comfort Deceit. They finally looked up and made eye contact with him. There was some hope in their eyes, but it seemed guarded as well. 

“You’ll really help me? Even after I’ve been terrorizing you?” They sounded doubtful. 

“Ya, you probably don’t want to be stuck here with me and I don’t really need a ghost following me around either. It’s a win-win situation if I help you.” Virgil reasoned with them. Deceit seemed frozen for a second, attempting to process the information. 

“Al-alright.” They still seem shocked that Virgil had offered them help. Virgil wasn’t sure how he found himself comforting a ghost in his kitchen but after everything else that had happened, this wasn’t the strangest thing he had done. And anyways, once he got this ring off, everything would be solved. Simple as that.


	4. Problem Solved... maybe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things for Virgil seem to finally be working out for him, or are they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, thanks for being so patient with me! New chapter is out and I've finally got a little motivation back in me to keep writing more. Unfortunately its on the shorter side but those kind of things happen. Thanks again for sticking with me

Now that Deceit had been calmed down Virgil needed to find a way to get this ring off. He figured his best bet was to text logan, he had to know how to get a ring off, right?

  
“Hey Lo how would you get a ring off if its stuck on your finger?” He sent. Luckily he didn’t need to wait long. Logan usually responded quickly.

  
“Virgil, do I even want to know what’s going on?”

  
“I put on a ring and now i can’t get it off. How do i get it off?”

  
“Well, metal will expand when it gets warm. So, if you use cold water it will cause the metal to contract. As well as adding a type of lubricant, like soap or oil, will also help with sliding the ring off.”

  
“So stick hand in cold water and use soap? Thatll get it off?

  
“Precisely. That should get it off. If it doesn’t work then you may have to get someone to carefully cut the ring off your finger.” Virgil figured that Deceit would not be happy if the ring was cut. So hopefully this cold water and soap would do the trick.

  
“Alright, thanks Lo” He pocketed his phone and made his way to the sink. While letting the water run in order to get cold he glanced over at Deceit. They were still sitting on the ground. He really hoped this plan worked because he wasn’t sure how Deceit would react if it didn’t.

  
“So… my friend suggested using soap and cold water to try and get it off.” The only thing he got for a response was a slight nod. A quiet sigh left him as he turned back to the sink and grabbed the dish soap. He stuck his hand in the icy water and held it there until his fingers were starting to go numb. He quickly turned off the faucet and poured some soap onto the ring. Rubbing it in and around, making sure to coat the ring. He took a deep breath before he grabbed onto the ring and began to slowly twist and pull on it. At first it seemed like nothing was happening. The ring still wasn’t budging. His heart rate spiked and he was becoming frantic until suddenly it came loose and popped off into his hand. He stood there in disbelief for a second before he whipped around to Deceit.

  
“I got it off!” He shouted, holding it out triumphantly. And before he could blink, Deceit was floating in the air right in front of him.

  
“You got it off? Give it to me please!” Their eyes were focused solely on the ring. They reached out as if they were going to snatch it out of his hands but then stopped. Deceit took a deep breath before glancing at Virgil, silently asking for permission. He extended his hand out towards Deceit with the ring sitting flat on his palm. They slowly reached forward and tentatively grabbed the ring, as if it would shatter if they were not careful enough. They carefully slipped the ring onto their finger and their eyes flashed yellow for a second. Virgil watched but nothing else seemed to happen after that.

  
“Do you feel any… different?” He had expected something more than just the flashing eyes. Deceit closed their eyes and seemed to be in thought for a moment.

  
“I think so, I’m not sure how to describe it but I feel more complete with it.”  
The two of them stood there in awkward silence for what was probably only a minute before Virgil spoke up.

  
“So… what are you gonna do now?”

  
“I’m not sure… I never thought that this would ever happen…” More silence.

  
“Well, I guess you’re able to do whatever you want now. It was… nice to meet you? … Umm, I’m gonna go to my room now and just… let you be on your way.” Virgil stuttered out.

  
“Yes, thank you again for your help Virgil. I hope I didn’t cause you too much discomfort while with you.” Deceit replied, equally as awkward.

  
Virgil nodded while slowly stepping out of the kitchen and making his way up to his room on the second floor. His mind was going a mile a minute, so many thoughts. Ghosts were real, so how many stories had he read about ghosts that were actually true? Would he be able to see other ghosts now? Don’t get him wrong, ghosts were interesting but he didn’t need another situation like this one happening again. At least he was able to solve this one and get Deceit on their way with their ring. It wasn’t until he got to the top of the steps that he heard a yelp and felt a distinct tugging-like sensation in his body.

  
“What the fu-” he was suddenly interrupted as Deceit appeared at the bottom of the stairs and looked to be getting pulled up the stairs towards him. And they did not look happy, in fact, they looked absolutely pissed.

  
“What’s going on?! I thought once you had the ring then you were free to go?”

  
“That’s what I thought too. Obviously, I was wrong.” They grumbled as they finally made it to the top of the stairs.

  
“Wait, so you’re still connected to me then? But I don’t have the ring anymore?”

  
“I know.”

  
“Then what’s keeping you connected to me?”

  
“If I knew don’t you think I would have told you?” They shot back at him. And Virgil stood there dumbfounded, was he going to be stuck with Deceit forever? There had to be some way to break whatever was forcing them together.

  
“Follow me to my room, I need to look up something on my laptop.” He then rushed into his room followed by the frustrated ghost.

  
“Not like I can go anywhere else.” They mumbled under their breath.

  
Once he got onto his laptop Virgil opened up a new tab and began typing while Deceit glanced over his shoulder.

  
“Do you really think that googling ‘how to get rid of ghosts’ is going to bring up reliable sources? They questioned.

  
“That’s not what I’m googling! I’m looking up how to help ghosts into the afterlife.” He was met with a deadpan look from Deceit.

  
“Oh, I apologize. That will certainly bring up more useful articles.” They drawled out. He elected to ignore their comment and began skimming over the articles that had popped up. Silence filled the room until Virgil pushed himself away from the computer.

  
“So, the most common thing I’m seeing is that there could be something in your past that’s keeping you trapped in the realm of the living. But I don’t see how that could be forcing us together.” He looked towards Deceit when he didn’t get any response. They weren’t looking at him and seemed as if they hadn’t heard him speak.

  
“Umm… Deceit?” That seemed to startle them as they whipped around to face him.

  
“What!”

  
“Could it be something to do with your pa-”

  
“No. It isn’t something to do with my past!” They had stopped him before he finished the question.

  
“Alright, alright. Umm, lets see... I’ve often heard stories of ghosts not being able to pass over due to a traumatic dea…” He trailed off and quickly glanced over at Deceit. They were looking off into the distance again, with a thousand-yard stare on their face. Like their thoughts weren’t fully there. Virgil took a gulp.

  
“Deceit? How did you die?” he hesitantly asked. Their eyes flashed for a second before turning to face him. He had expected anger, rage, some sort of violence directed at him for asking such a sensitive question, but it never came. Deceit was staring at him, their face void of any kind of emotion. Virgil wanted to look away but he seemed to be frozen in place.

  
“I think you can come up with a pretty good guess already.” He opened his mouth but no words came out, not even a sound.

  
“I’ll give you a hint. I died in that abandoned house 5 years ago, but did you see anything in the news about a death there? You think it would have at least made the local paper, being in such a strange location. But tell me, did you hear anything about it?”

  
Virgil would have been 12 or 13 depending on when exactly it happened. Young, but not so young that he would have forgotten something like that. But he hadn’t heard anything about it. His voice was still gone so all he could do was stare at Deceit.

  
“... That’s what I thought. So let me ask another question. If I died there and yet there was no news about it, what do you think happened? A death with no body discovered?” His voice gradually came back to him.

  
“Someone moved the body?”

  
“That’s right Virgil. Now, why would someone move the body?” Dread slowly started to fill his chest as things fell into place and his mind came to the conclusion that he didn’t want to think of.

  
“Y-you were…” His voice started to trail off again. But Deceit decided to finish his sentence for him.

  
“Murdered.”


End file.
